In August, the U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a series of vaccine mandates covering all branches of the military, with thousands of personnel now facing the sack following the expiration of numerous inoculation deadlines. In total, the U.S. military has begun discharging the 30,000 active and unvaccinated servicemen within its ranks, with the Air Force having fired 27 unjabbed pilots since Monday. The Mail has the story.
On Thursday, the Marine Corps said that 95% of its active-duty force of 182,500 Marines had received at least one Covid vaccine shot, the lowest percentage among the military services, moving up one point from 94% last month.
It is unclear why the first 103 Marines are being discharged now, as according to the Corps numbers, there are roughly 9,000 more remaining who have not been vaccinated still holding their rank.
However, the Marine Corps said it has approved 1,007 medical and administrative exemptions and is still processing 2,863 of the 3,144 requests made for a religious exemption as of Friday.
While the percentage of vaccinated active duty personnel in each service is at 95% or higher, the number of unvaccinated personnel is close to 30,000.
Navy officials have begun terminating the 5,731 active-duty sailors, or two percent of its active branch, who remain unvaccinated two weeks after the established deadline, leaders of the military branch confirmed on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Army announced it is prepared to axe 3,800 unvaccinated soldiers beginning in January and after the Air Force has already discharged 27 service members who refused the vaccine order.
